Adlène Hicheur (born 4 December 1976)Hadron Collider physicist Adlene Hicheur charged with terrorism, The Times, 13 October 2009 is a particle physicist with dual Algerian and French nationality.Transnational threat update, Center for Strategic and International Studies, October 2009 After his master of theoretical physics in Lyon, he joined LAPP (Laboratoire d'Annecy le Vieux de Physique des Particules) to work on the BaBar experiment, located at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. His thesis, defended in 2003, was about the production of high energy Eta prime mesons in the decays of B mesons. After that he was a Postdoctorate in England at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, where he worked on the ATLAS experiment at LHC. He then joined the high energy physics department of École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) and works currently on the LHCb experiment.
Adlène Hicheur was arrested in France on 8 October 2009, after police allegedly intercepted emails between himself and Al-Qaida in Islamic Maghreb, an Algerian-based terrorist organisation. Two weeks after his arrest, the Algerian mediaAdlène Hicheur: Une seconde affaire Raïssi ? , Le jour d'Algérie, 17 October 2009 compared Hicheur to Lotfi Raissi, who was first suspected of terrorism before being released without charges. An International Support Committee was organized by Adlene's friends and colleaguesComité international de soutien à Adlène Hicheur to support Adlene and to request a fair investigation.
General director of the National Police Frédéric Péchenard stated in November 2009 that Hicheur planned to attack a base of the National Defence in Annecy, which harbours the 27ème bataillon de chasseurs alpins, involved in Afghanistan.L'ingénieur du CERN soupçonné de terrorisme ciblait les chasseurs alpins, lemonde.fr, 17 November 2009
Hicheur's trial started on 29 March 2012 in Paris. In May 2012 Hicheur was sentenced to "five years in prison for plotting terrorist attacks." On 15 May Hicheur left prison and decided not to appeal against his sentence. He was a visiting professor at Instituto de Física of Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
In July 2016, the government of Brazil had Hicheur deported back to France, where he was placed under house arrest. Hicheur has decided to renounce his French citizenship and move to Algeria.
References
External links For Adlene Hicheur.Tommaso Dorigo's blog. Setting the record straight by M. Dittmar - PhysicsWorld Physicist’s Jailing Is Veiled in Mystery Letter to the President of the French Republic Letter to the President of the French Republic (English) Stratfor: The curious case of Adlene Hicheur Nature: Particle physicist 'falsely accused', claims brother CERN Scientist arrested CERN Physicist arrested Nuclear Physicist arrested in France Hadron Collider physicist French Physicist arrested Top Physicist arrested in France Nuclear Physicist Arrested For Suspected Terror Links French judge files terror-linked charges against arrested physicist Terrorism Charges pressed on French physicist Scientist on French terror charge Colleagues Offer New Details on Al-Qaeda Suspect: Devout, Genial, They Say Reaction of Hicheur's brother and Hicheur's lawyer Reaction of Hicheur former' advisor
Adlène Hicheur : un comité de soutien Scientific publications of Adlène Hicheur on INSPIRE-HEP